The Chimu kingdom arises in the Moche Valley of Peru, beginning to fill a vacuum left by the collapse of the Huaris.

Bantu-speaking peoples establish city-states on the east coast of Africa.

Rulers of the powerful Ghanian Empire in west Africa adopt Islam.

The classic period of Mayan civilization in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, southern Mexico, Belize, and El Salvador comes to an end. At its height the Mayan Empire consisted of some forty cities and had a total population of about two million people. While the lowland cities are abandoned after 900, the cities in the highlands of the Yucatan peninsula continue to flourish for several more centuries.

By this time the last inhabitants of Teotihuacan, near present-day Mexico City, have abandoned what is left of their once-great city, devastated by fire some 150 years earlier. They have been driven away by the arrival of warlike...